


Set Course for Earth

by dancingfox



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abandonment Issues, Angst, Earth, Emotionally Hurt Keith, Final space battle against Zarkon, Homesickness, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Injury, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith is a badass, Keith loves Red, Keith remembers his father, Lance is at the wrong place at the wrong time, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 05:32:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10507290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancingfox/pseuds/dancingfox
Summary: While the Universe chose Keith to be a Paladin, Keith doesn't like the Universe back. When it tries to take Lance in the heat of battle, Keith takes matters into his own hands.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I feel there aren't enough fics about Keith being a badass while balancing his abandonment issues.  
> Also, I love action one shots. Please enjoy and leave a comment! :)
> 
> I wrote this while listening to Victorious from The Last Guardian OST.  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aHknzoG8G0

 

Shots reverberated around the wide, oval room. It had been stormed by what looked like two whole squadrons of tenacious Galran soldiers.

_We're so close._

Lance's steady shooting was like an encouraging chant singing in his head. _We are in this together_.

Keith sucked in a deep breath before leaping up and plunging his Bayard deep into an unsuspecting spear-wielding Galran.

_Keep going, focus._

The team had penetrated deep within Zarkon's personal warship. The two-pronged attack was far more successful than they could have hoped. They'd pinned the mother ship with Allura's Castle and an Alkarian fleet, making it a sitting duck. Shiro was one door down, in the command room, no doubt dealing with Zarkon himself.

Meanwhile, Keith, Lance, Pidge and Hunk were picking off the incoming soldiers. They’d taken the ground and had to hold it to buy time for Shiro. Keith could taste how close they were to victory, to ridding the Galaxy of centuries of Galran oppression.

Keith and Lance were working in tandem on the east side of the room. They made a force to be reckoned with when they paired up now. Shiro had put them through endless training after realizing Lance's long range attacks and Keith's melee attacks worked remarkably well together. Through their competitiveness, they'd pushed themselves and reached a surprising ease when moving around each other.

Keith sucked in a gulp of air, feeling it slightly alleviate the ache in his lungs. He felt like he was bouncing off the walls. If he didn't want a Galtan spear in him, he couldn’t sit still for once second. 

They had black armour and glinty silver helmets. Looking at their tenacity, Keith guessed these were soldiers handpicked by Zarkon as his bodyguards. It's like they received a boost through the knowledge that the war would be over if they lost the battle today.

Keith was pulling his Bayard back out of a soldier's wide open chest when he felt something brush his back. With a panicked jump in his heart, he spun around but knew he'd be too late to parry.

The soldier with a spear poised above his head, ready to strike down, was blasted away before his eyes.

Relief flooded him and Keith's gaze slanted back to Lance's approximate location. Keith was barely holding up his end, taken aback by the soldiers' desperate ferocity, their numbers, and his own exhaustion.

As it was, Lance was out in the open, way more than usual. Keith pushed down a jab of guilt and anxiety. He could feel Lance shuffling closer, always staying at his back. He was firing shots fast and, afraid to hit Keith, he’d moved closer for a better view.

Keith had a bad feeling about this.  
  
One quick glance at the single doors bracing the pair of double doors - where Shiro was going toe-to-toe with Zarkon - alerted him of the fact that there was no lull in the flow of incoming Galrans.

More than Lance's cry of pain, Keith turned at the sudden break in the rhythm of the gunshots. They had been coming from Keith's sides, steady and quick, like the fast heart beating of a cornered animal. _Bang, Bang, Bang..._ and then nothing.

Sounds of the battle fell away and nothing made sense anymore.

Lance was held up by the spear cleaved right through his chest. His face scrunched up in agonizing pain, screaming his throat raw. His shaking fingers skidded desperately against metal.

A wave of fury took over Keith's vision and it narrowed down to the single soldier holding up Lance’s body.

Screeching in a voice completely alien to himself, he rushed him and cleaved his head right off.

Lance collapsed to the floor, gasping at the spear driving deeper into him.

Keith fell - more than lowered himself - to the floor, meeting Lance's wild eyes.

 "K-Keith...Sorry...I’m...." 

Blinking furiously, Keith shushed him. "It's okay...It's gonna be okay..."

The lie left Keith's mouth easily. _It was not going to be okay._ The spear was shoved in too deep, blood flowing out fast.

Still, Lance's deep blue eyes looked relieved upon hearing his words. Always believing too easily in others.

   
_It can't end like this._

 

Flashes and the echoing of a gunshot fired long ago. Salt on his lips, his father on the floor.

Suddenly he was six again, and completely powerless.

It had been a home break-in, but the thief had taken more than possessions. His father’s warm, steady hand had left him when he’d gone to check out the noise in the kitchen.

He had never returned.

 

Keith gasped as he stared down at Lance. Wild abandon squeezed his chest, and tears flowing freely over his cheeks.

 “Lance…” Keith’s voice breaking, he shook him gently, “Lance…”

Lance didn’t seem to hear him, eyes heavily lidded, sweat at his brow and breathing fast _\- too fast..._

They were so close to defeating Zarkon.

They would be going home.

Keith had always wondered how Lance would look like when they got the okay to go home. How his smile would lit up the Galaxy.  
  
Lance deserved to go home.

 

_I won't let it end like this._

 

The acid grief in his stomach was drowned in blinding rage and determination. Rage at the Galran soldier. At Zarkon and his greed. At the universe for being so inexplicably cruel.

Making up his mind, he heaved Lance's long limbs over his shoulder. He was unconscious but still breathing softly against his back.

Ignoring the chaos of the battlefield around him, he left it up to Hunk and Pidge to defend their ground while attempting to sneak into Red, who had been parked a bit ways back.  
  
He laid Lance down gently on the cold floor in the middle of the cockpit, having nowhere else to put him.

He turned towards the pilot chair without even a glance towards Lance's still figure.  He set course for the Castle and begged Red to hurry.

Nearly crashing into the Black Lion's hangar, he leaped out of Red. This hangar was the closest to the healing pods. With a few ticks from his fingers, one pod obediently whizzed upwards.

Hugging it with both arms, Keith groaned as he dragged it from its stocking station, towards the Red Lion. Keith knew the pods could be connected to the Lions' quintessence. He learned it after that one catastrophic experiment where Pidge had to be transported fast in a cryogenic pod to find an antidote that could only be found on a far-away planet. The pods were also, surprisingly, light. Even still, Keith felt the seconds tick away as he dragged the pod; like the countdown of a bomb strapped around his neck.

Heaving it through Red's mouth and into the cockpit, he grabbed a rounded wire underneath the display and plugged it into the second opening in the pod’s side. Then, he gathered Lance’s unconscious body in his arms.

After depositing him inside - _careful, careful_ \- his fingers came away covered in warm blood.

Stomach lurching, he turned to the pod’s controls. It whizzed closed and Keith adjusted the setting from a sustained healing process to deep-freezing cryopreservation.

He stopped for a moment and his fingers grabbed at his bangs anxiously. A shuddering breath left him.  _Patience yields focus._

Keith was reluctant to leave Red again but he had to find the Orb. Allura had used it like a USB stick, for storing information. After a particularly rough night when everyone had been in a nasty mood due to homesickness, Allura had waved the Orb at them at breakfast the next morning. When slit open, it projected a hologram of the earth and a navigation map. She had solemnly promised they could use it after Zarkon and his Empire was destroyed.

Keith's feet skid across the long hallways, searching for the Altean library. He cursed viciously when the cushion it had been sitting upon was now empty.

He turned and moved on a hunch, crashing into Lance's room. As expected, it sat there on the messy desk, a painful reminder of Lance's deepest wish. Snatching it up, he pushed his burning legs to make it back to Red. Willfully ignoring the white spots springing into his vision.

Throwing himself into the pilot chair, he smashed the Orb on the panel and slit it open. The hologram appeared in a glistening deep blue hue.  
  
Keith frowned as he inserted the navigation coordinates into Red's display. _2468333 light years away._

That was more than he could wrap his brain around.

He geared Red up for take-off and they shot into space, moving away from the blinding flashes of plasma and death.

  
_Red._  
_  
If you can hear me, I need you now more than ever._

  
Keith swallowed hard as the mental image appeared of Lance's pale skin and eyelashes fluttering in pain and red, so much red.

  
_Set course for Earth._  
_  
I need you to...keep Lance alive._

  
Keith bit his lips and dared a glance at Lance’s deep-frozen body. He’d stopped it from deteriorating further, but it was not healing either. If Lance’s signals were too far gone to heal, Keith might only be able to take Lance out long enough for him to see the Earth’s sky, one last time.

_Reroute constant power to the thrusters and the healing pod._

Instantly, the controls for weapon utilization and scanning systems fell away.

Red was flying blind without defense systems, solely locked onto one pair of coordinates, heading for Earth.

Keith flinched at the stab of guilt. _I'm sorry, girl._

Red hummed in understanding and consolation.

Keith's lips curled around a grim half-smile. Red was silent most of the time, and didn't like being told what to do. But at times like these, she really came through.

 

_Thank you. I can always count on you._

 

Red was not one to shy away from battles but it seemed like she understood. Like she knew that she might lose her Paladin if she didn't.

  
_I need you to be faster, Red._

  
_Please, bring Lance home._  



End file.
